The 6 main functions of the psychologist (and his role in society).

Different ways to help people through psychological research and intervention.

It is mistakenly thought that the main mission of psychologists is to give answers or advice to people who find themselves in a situation of suffering. However, as psychology is a science with a long history and development, the functions of the psychologist are as varied as the psychology itself, the psychologist's functions are as varied as they are important..

Taking this into consideration, we will see below what are, exactly, the main functions of the psychologist.

The 6 main functions of the psychologist

The functions of the psychologist depend largely on the subdiscipline or the specialized branch of psychology that is applied. These may be, for example, clinical psychology, educational psychology, social psychology or organizational psychology. In turn, these disciplines have been created with one main objective in mind: to solve problems related to human behavior. solving problems related to human behavior..

In other words, they have been created to provide answers to different problems in different environments. Although the theoretical and practical foundations are the same, psychology is not applied in the same way in a clinical setting as it is in a school or a company.

1. Providing emotional support

Most psychologists are trained to "help others". This demand may be presented and solved in many different ways, because the need for help is not always the same for everyone..

Thus, the psychologist also has the function of detecting which are the most appropriate tools for each case. Some use diagnostic manuals, others use therapies based on different theoretical models, others resort to referral when the case is beyond their possibilities of action.

It is often thought that emotional support is limited to clinical or diagnostic spaces. does not only occur in the consulting rooms, nor is it exclusive to the manuals.nor is it exclusive to manuals. For example, there are group interventions in workshops or therapies for more than one person and even in public spaces.

In any case, the work of the psychologist is to generate an empathetic and responsible space in the face of the suffering of others, so that the construction of tools to mitigate it can be favored.

2. Understanding how we create and are affected by society.

This function is more or less recent in the history of psychology, and corresponds to the social specialty of this. It is more recent because psychology initially emerged as a way of studying the individual and his or her mental processes.

But there was a group of intellectuals who realized that the psyche did not exist in isolation, but was influenced by other psyches, or by "society". In fact, it is sometimes thought that society is one thing, and individuals are something else entirely. Indeed, much of the traditional development of social psychology has been based on this idea.

However, there are also branches of social psychology that consider that society is nothing more than the collective activity of individuals, which means that we are not only "affected" by it, but at the same time we produce it. This is part of the curiosities that a psychologist can have and try to develop in the form of theories and interventions. in the form of theories and interventions.

3. Offering strategies for human development

While psychology offers itself as a tool for understanding the human being, it has also developed the objective of promoting or encouraging this being to develop in positive conditions for him/herself.

Thus, one of the most recent functions of the psychologist is no longer only to understand and accompany (or even "cure") discomforts, but to understanding and promoting well-being.

For example, a part of humanistic psychology has devoted itself to studying the conditions that are most favorable to our development, with the aim of providing both individual and social tools to promote it. And, more recently, we can find the branch of positive psychology, in which the psychologist has precisely the function of understanding and benefiting the individual. has precisely the function of understanding and benefiting personal growth..

4. To understand and promote cognitive development.

Another of the most characteristic functions of the psychologist has been to study, describe and understand how intelligence, reasoning, future planning, memory, attention and learning act. how intelligence, reasoning, future planning, memory, attention, learning, among other activities that constitute our cognitive processes.among other activities that constitute our cognitive processes.

Through this understanding and the proposals that have been generated in cognitive psychology, the psychologist has gained one more function: to create the necessary strategies to favor these processes.

This can be applied in different spaces, for example in schools to encourage children's learning, or in clinical therapy to modify patterns of thought that cause suffering..

In fact, the word psychology means "study of the psyche", and "psyche" is a term that refers to the processes of the human mind. The latter can be studied independently of behavior, or in relation to it, as would be the case of a cognitive-behavioral psychologist.

• You may be interested in. "Cognitive restructuring: what is this therapeutic strategy like?"

5. Advise recruitment and personnel management processes

During its development, psychology has had to adapt to different social and individual needs. At the present moment of our civilization, industrial or organizational relations are fundamental to our daily lives..

In this context, a psychologist (who would be, for example, an organizational psychologist), has the main function of knowing and advising a particular business context. The latter includes, from understanding which professional profiles are best suited to that context, to favoring the labor relations established there.

6. To develop knowledge about the relationship between biology and behavior.

One of the main tasks of psychologists has always been to know the relationship between behavior and our Biological makeup. That is, to know how our actions and even our feelings are connected to our physiology or our brain activity. are connected with our physiology or with the activity of our brain..

Thus, recently there have even emerged specialties in psychology training and research (which in turn have provided tools for the clinic and to promote cognition), known as behavioral physiology, or neuropsychology.

The psychologist specializing in these areas can play important roles in diagnosing, studying and treating, for example, Alzheimer's disease, some types of depression and anxiety, aphasia, among other neurodevelopmental diversities.